The Tears of Dark Water by Corban Addison

Author:Corban Addison
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

VANESSA

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND

January 6, 2012

The examination room at Small World Family Medicine was as friendly a place as Vanessa could imagine in the world of health care. Its warm lighting and soft blue and yellow hues evoked a spring sunrise; its blown-up photographs of smiling children—one from each continent—reflected the inclusiveness of the practice; its crayon drawings, all done by child patients, set a tone of vitality and life, not disease and death. There were toys for toddlers in a bin on the floor, a frosted window admitting natural light, a fern spreading branches below the windowsill, and all of the medical implements were hidden away in cabinets. Yet she often wondered what her refugee clients thought of it. Most of them had arrived in the United States with little more than the clothes on their backs. They were accustomed to noisy clinics in squalid camps where the pressure of humanity was overwhelming. The examination room, by contrast, was a manicured oasis of tranquility. After more than a decade of practice, she still couldn’t decide whether the effect was jarring or reassuring.

What would Halima say? she thought as she scanned the questionnaire in front of her. The girl was eighteen, the firstborn of five children, only three of whom were still alive. Born in Darfur in western Sudan, she was Muslim but not Arab, which made her a target for the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Sudanese government. In late 2003, soldiers had burned her village to the ground, killing her father and two brothers. Her mother had fled with Halima and her sisters to the Kakuma refugee area in Kenya, where they lived for seven years until they were resettled in the United States.

Halima had been fortunate. She was smart and industrious and had acquired a decent command of English in the camps. She was also blessed with a hardy disposition and had survived chronic malnourishment and two bouts of malaria with little sign of long-term distress. In the initial evaluation, Vanessa didn’t have time for a physical. She focused on building rapport and determining whether there were any acute issues like infections or parasites that required immediate attention.

“Your health is good,” she told the girl. “We need to run tests on the samples we took. But you should be pleased.”

“Subhanallah,” Halima said, her large eyes sparkling. “Thanks be to God.”

Vanessa escorted the girl to the lobby, where her mother was waiting. “I’d like to see you again in a couple of months. The receptionist can give you an appointment.”

Halima smiled. “You are very kind, Dr. Vanessa. Stay well.”

As soon as she left, Vanessa’s carefully constructed façade began to crack. She walked quickly to her office, locking the door behind her. Her grief was like a tropical squall. She never knew when it would arise and how hard it would blow. She kept tissues in her pockets for the occasions when she came unglued in public.

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